didn't include california because california has you know was already a state. question was so critical because it had to do with the future of slavery, and the future of southern power in the nation. now, southerners demanded what they saw as their constitutional rights as american citizens to take their property, including slave property, into territories owned by the entire nation. in 1857, in the famous or infamous dred scott decision, the united states supreme court affirmed this southern constitutional view. republicans in contrast said never. no matter the supreme court. republicans would allow moral -- no more slaves in any territory. abraham lincoln was elected in november of 1860. a month later the united states congress came into session. members of congress put forth various compromise proposals, a critical portion of all in some way dealt with the division of the territories. most often there was a proposal to extend some kind of a dividing line western beyond the louisiana purchase all the way